More UK students go to the US and Australia than to all 27 EU countries combined

Layla Moran MP should learn about Erasmus+ before lecturing people

LibDems fail in attempt to resurrect their reputation with students

On Wednesday this week Layla Moran, LibDem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, put forward an amendment to the Withdrawal Bill regarding the EU’s €30bn education programme called Erasmus+. Commonly thought of as an exchange programme allowing students to study abroad, we lift the lid on this vastly expensive youth indoctrination project.

Here is what Ms Moran said in Parliament:

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

“For students, young people, those in training and staff who work in the education sector, the Erasmus scheme has been absolutely incredible.”

“From 2014 to the end of this year alone, €1 billion has been allocated to support the UK as part of Erasmus+. New clause 10 would only require the Government to seek—to do what they say they want to do, but let us be sure—to negotiate continuing full membership of the future Erasmus education and youth programme.”

“Let us remind ourselves what Erasmus does. It allows our young people to go abroad to European universities, to learn new languages, to meet new people, to put down some roots abroad and to build the international understanding that, in my view, is a big part of what it means to be British.”

- Layla Mortan MP, Wed 08 Jan 2020

FACT : In the last year for which figures are available from the EU (2017), the UK received just €62 million for higher education grants under Erasmus+. As with the EU budget as a whole, the UK subsidises the EU27 countries with Erasmus+.

About Layla Moran MP

Ms Moran is the LibDem’s spokesperson for Education, Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. She says she is “British-Palestinian” and now lives in a same-sex relationship, describing herself as “pansexual”.

She was educated at private schools (including Roedean and the Brussels International School) and subsequently became a teacher at private schools. Her father worked for the EU.

What is the EU’s Erasmus+ programme?

There are many ways in which the EU channels British taxpayer money back to the UK, dressed as though it were ‘Funded by the EU’. One of these is the Erasmus+ programme

Erasmus+ is one of those EU ‘projects’ which even Brexiteer politicians say they might want to keep paying into after Brexit. The government has as yet made no guarantees, so this is the ideal time for everyone to learn about this (supposedly) educational programme.

Erasmus+ is “the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe,” says the EU Commission.

This new version of Erasmus started in 2014, with a 40% increase in funding and a significant increase in its scope. It is now set to double on top of that.

This scope now covers matters which have little to do with higher education, such as ‘youth exchanges’ and ‘volunteering’. It even includes programmes to “develop new teaching practices or curricula” – something most people probably think is the role of the Dept for Education in the UK.

Erasmus funds and “promotes – among other things – good governance, social inclusion, the fight against racism, dual careers, and physical activity for all.”

1/3rd of the budget goes on “partnerships and reforms of the education and youth sectors”

What does all this cost?

In the EU's current budgeting period, the cost of Erasmus+ is €14.7 billion.

In the EU's next budgeting period from 2020 the cost of Erasmus is projected at €30 billion - more than double.

Observations

"But Erasmus+ is all about education and so many young people benefit"

Many British people (including our young people) imagine that Erasmus+ is all about giving our students a chance to study for all or part of their degrees abroad. However this is just a minority part of the whole programme.

This entire project is much more insidious and far-reaching in its aims.

Erasmus+ is no longer all about education in the sense most people understand the word, and the majority of it has nothing to do with degree courses. In common with most other areas of the EU's activities, Erasmus has expanded way beyond its original brief.

In common with many people, the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team care deeply about educational opportunities for young people. We believe that students who go to study for a period in another country benefit enormously, as do students who come to the UK to study.

No-one is suggesting for one moment that students should be prevented from studying abroad after Brexit. The key question is how the money that is being spent - by the UK government OR by the EU spending UK money. Everyone would surely agree that UK taxpayer money should be wisely allocated to the benefit of as many British students as possible, and not to subsidise students from the EU27.

We simply don't believe Erasmus+ offers value for money, as is so often the case with EU programmes, and that Brexit offers an opportunity to present students with a wider range of possibilities.

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Reader Comments 23

1. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, January 11, 2020, 09:29:

Learning another language - Erasmus is probably not the best way. As an improvement course - yes.
English is today's International language.
We can be lazy and not learn foreign languages. French appears to be the other main choice.
Our Government should foster exchange schemes the historic way of learning in other Countries.

2. Sydney Ashurst , Saturday, January 11, 2020, 10:42:

The EU Commission are proposing to start the Brexit negotiation at loggerheads with the UK, setting the rules under what they term as 'a level playing field'. It could cover almost anything they consider to be competitive,
Ursula von der Leyen set the tone with: “We have to be very clear that Brexit is a matter of trade-offs and choices. In other words we are still the masters. The closer you adhere to the single market and our control the more we can see our way to a trade deal
Its a RANSOM note
A new hand has been dealt, The British electorate have mandated the Boris Johnson Government to leave the EU with or without a deal.
Surely Germany with its balance of trade with the UK is in need of a trade agreement without tariffs, more than anyone else.

3. Sally M , Saturday, January 11, 2020, 15:29:

I meet numerous students through my two children. I've yet to meet one who ever used ERASMUS+. I think studying abroad for a year can be a good thing but I don't see why we should all pay through the nose to the EU for it.

4. Matthew Sylvestre , Saturday, January 11, 2020, 21:47:

More moronic Brexs**t anti-European propaganda being espoused by right-wing europhobe fanatics! Just take a look at the Eurosceptic hypocrites like Mr. [Name removed - Ed.] MP, a Tory ****, if there ever was one! The European Union gave his company over £500,000 in one year alone and then he illegal paid himself £54,000 from a now defunct company! What a crook!
[Bad language and potentially libellous comm ents remoived by BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG TEAM]

5. Martin Godpraiser , Saturday, January 11, 2020, 22:38:

Ridiculous Brexs**t propaganda.
Here is a fun fact:
Size matters: the EU accounts for almost half of Britain’s exports, while Britain takes barely a tenth of the EU’s.
Here is another one:
The EU members are more than happy to close down ridiculously expensive to run car factories in the UK and reopen them on the continent since none of those is actually British. And yet the Britons will have to buy cars nonetheless. Sadly for the benefit takers who voted to leave the taxes will be paid elsewhere but the UK. Bravo!
How ironic that is that the very same poor people who voted to leave will be out of jobs they got by belonging to EU!
And the Remainers, who are overwhelmingly well educated and skilled, will still be better off. How annoying an experience for them leavers!
[Bad language edited by BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG TEAM]

6. Ross , Sunday, January 12, 2020, 00:01:

Martin #5
So only the poor voted to leave and all the well educated and skilled voted to remain ---what arrogant nonsense.
"Size matters: the EU accounts for almost half of Britain’s exports, while Britain takes barely a tenth of the EU’s."
You imply that exports to the EU will dry up after Brexit is in place. You clearly do not understand business. Firstly there is no reason that those exports will not continue unless the EU impose huge import tariffs but tariffs can work both ways. Secondly the EU importers make money from the UK products so they will want to continue to buy and make money ---if the EU impose uneconomic tariffs they will be screaming just as much as the UK exporters but eventually both parties will find ways around the issue, that is how business works.

7. Jon, Wales , Sunday, January 12, 2020, 05:24:

As usual, a splendid article from Facts4EU complete with sources.
Perhaps the few readers who regard this factual piece [and this site] as 'propaganda' should provide their own sources of factual information. To criticise is one thing, but to provide no evidence quite another.
To be clear, Leavers have no problem with the diversity and wonderful cultures of continental sovereign nations - we object to the EU and its unaccountable level of bureaucratic nonsense that UK taxpayers presently have imposed upon them at huge cost.
UK taxpayers also subsidise the majority of EU member countries whilst we go short. Many articles have been produced by Facts4EU showing the many EU budgets to which the UK has been quietly paying £billions - All that has changed as we have a strong leader who believes in our great country who is prepared to say "no".
No country has to be a member of the EU to trade with it, and no country has to pay into the budget of a foreign power.
Don't expect others to pick up the EU tab. They want it, they pay for it.
Continental businesses will seek to maintain good relations with the UK in their own economic interests.
Brexit was many things, but the overriding factor was who governs our sovereign country - those we elect to Parliament and remove from power if they don't perform to our liking, or those we don't elect in the EU commission and can NEVER remove (a foreign power and our competitors), yet they hold extreme powers at UK taxpayers expense.
The EU parliament (with a small 'p') is nothing but a talking shop which has no power. How many times have we heard the EU dismiss reasonable [to us] requests out of hand? How many times did we hear the EU commission say "NO" it can't be done?
Well now the boot is on the other foot and EU members should in my view consider their own position. Do peoples on the Continent want to be governed by an unelected, unaccountable EU commission, or do they prefer FREEDOM? The choice is theirs to make?

8. The Brexit Facts4EU.Org team , Sunday, January 12, 2020, 07:19:

QUICK REQUEST TO REMAINERS WISHING TO COMMENT ON HERE, FROM THE BREXIT FACTS4EU.ORG TEAM :
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2. No content which could land you - and thereby us - in legal trouble. No accusations about individuals which are defamatory or libellous, please.
3. Please try to comment on the article in question - no general abuse please. For example if the article is about Erasmus+ as in this case, by all means comment if you have something to offer in relation to that. Please do not try to deflect onto completely different topics, which is the standard Remainer tactic. If you have no answer to the facts in our articles, probably best to say nothing.
Thank you!

9. Concerned , Sunday, January 12, 2020, 09:01:

Remainers make me sick with their pathetic ways. They lost and yet refuse to accept having lost an epic, historic vote.
I have never in my 67 years lived through such a horrendous period when losers refuse to accept having lost and get on with their life, unlike all previous elections. As the team notes, standard practice displayed by commenter 4 & 5, changing names....

10. Gazzablack , Sunday, January 12, 2020, 09:44:

Martin #5
It's the size of the fight in the dog, not the size of the dog in the fight that matters.
"How annoying for them leavers"- Is this an example of the remainer's superior education in action?
So UK factories are ridiculously expensive to run are they?. Well considering that there is no sentiment in business and they could have relocated at any time during the UK's membership, why didn't they?
Why did Toyota choose the UK to manufacture it's models when they could have manufactured them at the "cheaper to run" continental EU factories, safe in the knowledge that they could export them to the UK tariff free.